Breaking More Waves

Tuesday, 3 March 2015

If you follow us on Twitter you might have seen us grumbling recently about ‘premieres.’ It seems to us that music industry protocol decrees that every new song released must have some sort of premiere or exclusive coverage. Whether you’re Arcade Fire premiering your new video on Pitchfork or a lo-fi indie band with your latest slice of dirty noise streaming exclusively on some small scale d-i-y music blog, helping you to sell 50 copies of your latest vinyl release, if you haven’t got one, it seems as if you’re worth nothing in certain sectors.But frankly we couldn’t give a flying fig about premieres / exclusives. Apologies now to bands and PR companies who offer them to us when they get an email back that says ‘yes this is good and we’re going to post it but we’re not bothered about going first with it, see if you can find someone else who this sort of thing is important to’ response. There’s a really great post about these things on Song By Toad called Why EXCLUSIVES!!! Make Me Hate Music. It’s kind of funny, kind of rude, but it hits the nail on the head from where we’re coming from. We're glad we're not the only ones who think this way. Basically these things are 99% of the time about desperation and attention. Have a read (and a giggle – we did) here.Why do we mention this? Because of this new song by a new act that goes by the name of The Japanese House, who according to twitter is actually a singer called Amber Bain. A quick google search of Amber reveals that she may have released some past material under other names, although we’re unable to 100% confirm this. The Japanese House is due to release a debut EP Pools To Bathe In through Dirty Hit (home of The 1975, Wolf Alice and Marika Hackman) on the 27th April. But here’s the thing; it had its radio premiere on Zane Lowe last night, then its blog premiere on Noisey. So, by the rules of premieres and exclusives it’s already asserted itself as being a moderately important record by industry types.This of course all sounds rather cynical on our part – but when it comes to the music, we’re not. Why? Because it wins. Still, the first track from The Japanese House fits perfectly in with the zeitgeist, with electronically filtered vocals and chilled studio electronics that are the equivalent of a lush pile carpet. But under all that trickery is the important stuff – a melody, and a rather alluring one at that. The Japanese House - Still

In one of our kitchen cupboards at some point in the past we stored a collection of rather delicious chutneys, one of which was made by Lucy Rose. Sadly it’s all gone now, but there’s hope of a refill; because Lucy is back out on tour in the UK this month. Of course there’s no guarantee that Lucy will be selling her produce on her merchandise stand like past gigs, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed.

We’ve also been keeping more than just fingers crossed for her new song to be as good as her chutney. Thankfully it’s pretty tasty. This one’s all Bombay Bicycle Club bounce and shimmy - a further slide away from her original more acoustic sound. Sure, it will probably annoy the folky purists but it will also probably put a smile on a few more indie / pop kids faces. Lyrically the song deals with those times when someone has done something that has upset or annoyed you, but then your eyes meet, everything is forgotten and it’s time to make up. The track, which is available to purchase on April 26th, is taken from Lucy’s forthcoming second album. Her UK tour starts on the 9th March and runs through till the end of the month.

Monday, 2 March 2015

Last year when we put Coasts on our Ones to Watch for 2015 list we suggested that they were the only band with an indie guitar sound on the list. Take one listen to Modern Love, their first new material of 2015, and then if you want give us a good dressing down. For this tune (or should we say TUNE) has more than a smidgen (OK a massive whack) of big-pop / rave euphoria about it. This is less skinny jeans, black t-shirts and skulking around the pub with a pint of cider than brightly coloured vests, gold glittery dresses and firework explosions out of neon-glow rockets at the nightclub labelled fun.Basically it’s a banger and deserves to be all over daytime radio. This is why we named them on that list.Coasts - Modern Love

If you’re fans of music accompanied by archive spoken word samples (yes Public Service Broadcasting fans, we’re looking at you, and for those with a slightly longer sense of music history, those who liked The Orb as well) we’d like to introduce to this gorgeous piece of music by Andrew Phillips and Marcus O'Dair, better known as Brighton's Grasscut. September’s Night Sky (which is accompanied by the equally stunning Curlews on whatever the internet version of the flipside is) narrates the spring equinox in the Southern Hemisphere. With delicate arrangements of bite-sized pieces of electronica and beautifully magnificent strings it will make you want to stare up at the sky and just wonder about the glorious expanse of it all – maybe those funny little mouse like creatures who speak in whistles and eat green soup from the Soup Dragon (here) really do exist after all? For a moment we thought we heard some Clangers like noises towards the end of this loveliness. Grasscut have a new album call Everyone Was A Bird which will be released on May 18th. The Curlews / September’s Night Sky single is out now.Grasscut - September's Night Sky